Dave Bolland of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates his second-period goal against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series at the United Center in Chicago on Tuesday. The Hawks won 7-2.

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CHICAGO — The Vancouver Canucks' road to hockey's promised land hit its first pothole Tuesday night.

It came in the form of Dave Bolland.

The feisty centre returned from a 17-game absence to score one goal and set up three others as the Chicago Blackhawks kept their season alive with a convincing 7-2 win over the Canucks at the United Center.

“Sweep this,” the Hawks seemed to be saying to the Canucks, who had hoped to finish off the defending Stanley Cup champions in four games. Chicago blew the game open with four unanswered goals in the second period.

Now the series shifts back to Vancouver for Game 5 on Thursday night (7 p.m., CBC, Team 1040). The Canucks remain in complete control with a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference quarter-final series, but the Hawks have at least given them something to think about.

"It's definitely what we needed," said Chicago captain Jonathan Toews. "Not only did we need a win, but it was great to win big and be able to prove a point. We want to go out there and play for each other and everything kind of finally snowballed in our favour. It gives us a lot of confidence going into Game 5.

"Again, the pressure's on them. We found our game again."

Now the Canucks need to rediscover theirs. From a Vancouver perspective there was absolutely nothing to like about this game. The Canucks were miserable from top to bottom. The Sedin twins were a combined minus-seven on the night, Vancouver's team defence was terrible and goalie Roberto Luongo surrendered more than three goals in regulation for the first time in his last 36 starts.

"Not very often this year after a game have I said we got outworked by the opposition, but we did get outworked tonight," said Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault. "They won most of the one-on-one battles, so it's about our work ethic and we can fix that easy."

"We have had the motto all year of not get too high, not get too low and I think that applies here," added defenceman Kevin Bieksa. "We have won three games and you haven't seen a whole lot of celebration and now we lose one and we learn from it and move on."

Bolland hadn't played since March 9, when he suffered a concussion. His return seemed to give the Hawks the spark they needed to extend their season.

"We certainly fed off of his presence," said Chicago coach Joel Quenneville.

Just like they did in Game 3 on Sunday night, the Hawks got the kind of start they wanted. And Bolland played a part in giving the Hawks an early lead.

He drew the second assist on Bryan Bickell's goal at 1:33 of the first. Bickell beat Bieksa down the right wing and then skated in front of the Vancouver goal before flipping the puck past Luongo, who had unsuccessfully tried to poke the puck off Bickell's stick.

Bolland also had a part in Vancouver's tying goal three minutes later. He was serving a minor for an elbow on Vancouver defenceman Christian Ehrhoff when Sami Salo beat Chicago goalie Corey Crawford with a one-timer from the left point. Salo's shot appeared to go in off Chicago defenceman Brian Campbell.

That turned out to be about the only mistake Bolland made all night.

"I knew I was ready," Bolland said. "Once I did the tests and the doctors said I was okay, I was ready to go. You never want to get in too quick with these things, but I knew my head was 100 per cent."

And now you wonder whether he's in the head of the Canucks.

The roof collapsed on Luongo and the Canucks in the second period. Defencemen Brian Campbell and Duncan Keith scored goals 17 seconds apart to get things started. Campbell took a pass from Patrick Kane and beat Luongo glove side from well out at 5:18. Then Michael Frolik won a puck battle with Alex Edler in the corner and fed a pass to Keith, who beat Luongo from the hashmarks.

Bolland scored his goal when he intercepted a Tanner Glass clearing attempt and put a shot off the left post and past Luongo at 14:45. Frolik completed the second-period onslaught at 18:57 when he scored on a breakaway after a Bolland pass.

The Canucks insisted they hadn't taken Tuesday's game for granted, assuming the Hawks would just roll over for them.

"Not at all," Bieksa said. "The preparation was the same going into tonight. The first period we were happy with. We just made some mistakes in the second period and they are a good team and they played well tonight. Their best players played well. They made us pay."

Patrick Sharp added a pair of power-play goals in the third period and Luongo was replaced by Cory Schneider shortly after Sharp's first goal at 2:49. Daniel Sedin scored Vancouver's other goal when he tipped in an Ehrhoff shot from the right point at 16:24 on a Vancouver power play.

Things got chippy near the end of the game and the teams combined to rack up 90 minutes in penalties in the third period.

"It's playoff hockey and not to say we want to make a statement going to the next game, but we want to finish the game hard and finish it physical," said Bieksa, who fought Chicago forward Viktor Stalberg late in the third. "That has been our game plan all year long, so that's what we did. We kept playing hard."

Now they must play hard on Thursday night or this series could get very interesting.

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